VIDEO OF THE DAY: Pulitzer winner collects BP oil for his political cartoons

By
Michael Cavna

Steve Breen shared with Comic Riffs last month his tale of Operation Tarball, when he traveled to the Gulf to collect BP oil to use in his cartoons.

The San Diego Union-Tribune's Pulitzer-winning political cartoonist recounted how his anger at the disaster fueled his sudden inspiration, saying: "As a creative person who works with dark liquid all the time -- in ink -- something organically grew out of that. I play with dark liquid all the time, so I decided to use oil as my ink."

Breen struck black gold on July 3, transported his liquid loot (via mail and carry-on luggage) home and then experimented with different concentrations of the tar, thinning it with gasoline. Today, Breen shares a video clip of how Operation Tarball unfolded:

"I felt guilty because I found the whole process fascinating and a creative challenge," Breen told 'Riffs of his tarball trek, which yielded five powerful political cartoons. "I was on kind of a creative high."